Sunlight shines through the windows of the vast cinderblock studio as the technical workers set up. Dark sunglasses rest high on the bridge of Luhan’s nose, as he enters the renovated building. Large metal pillars reach from the smooth floor to the metal lined in complex designs across the ceiling. They’re in District Nine, the factory district, the last stop before the Red Light District when taking the subway.

The place is huge even with half of it leading towards a maze like corridor that houses dressing rooms and conference rooms. He’s not there to work, he’s there to mentor, to watch over the two models within his group as they work with two females from a different, lesser known company from somewhere far north. Kyungsoo’s off attending to official business or so he says, so Luhan, takes up his job for him.

Yixing falters in behind him, eyes roaming around the place as he fixes his dark hair. He’s wearing a black suit, identifying badge tucked snuggly in his left pocket. His dark dress shoes squeak against the floor as he makes to roam farther but Luhan makes it a point to grab him before he wanders off and gets lost.

“Junmyeon’s not sleeping with Kyungsoo,” Yixing tells him as they continue the conversation they’d begun in Luhan’s car. Luhan hadn’t brought up anything about Junmyeon’s and Kyungsoo’s relationship, just his discomfort in Yixing being around, and Junmyeon being missing. “I know that’s what you think, but Kyungsoo’s not sleeping with him.”

“I didn’t think that,” Luhan tells him, removing his sunglasses and blinking slowly to adjust his eyes to the new lighting. “Kyungsoo doesn’t like Junmyeon in that way.”

“They’re family friends,” Yixing says. “Obviously, we all are, but Kyungsoo and Junmyeon have a more…” He trails off then, frowning because no matter what comes to mind it doesn’t fit what he wants to say. “It’s complicated,” he whispers, the frown still on his lips. “It’s like he feels obligated to Junmyeon or something.”

“Yixing, I really don’t care,” Luhan stresses. “You didn’t have to follow me here just to say that either.”

“I didn’t follow you here just to say that,” Yixing tells him. “I’m here for models.”

Luhan has a retort on the tip of his tongue, but he’s interrupted by a call of his name, and he’s looking from Yixing, to the direction he heard it in. He catches sight of Sehun, hair slightly ruffled but still styled, dark eyeliner smudged around his narrowed eyes, and a tight white tank top, exposing the ripples of the muscle in his arms, and torso. It only takes a few strides of his long legs for him to reach Luhan, towering over the elder.

“Why do you look like that,” Luhan asks with a frown. “Did you have an earlier shoot?”

“Where’s Kyungsoo,” Sehun asks.

“He’s busy,” Luhan tells him. “I’m in charge today, so if you have something to say, say it now or get back to your dressing room.”

“I can’t stay late,” Sehun tells him.

“I’m not in control of the shoot Sehun,” Luhan tells him with a sigh. “Do your part and leave if you have somewhere you want to be.”

“We won’t be starting any time soon,” Sehun states, “They’re almost done setting up, and I’m next for dressing, but they said it’ll be an hour and a half till they really start.” Sehun leans in now, staring pleadingly into Luhan’s eyes. “I really can’t stay.”

“Okay,” Luhan says with a sigh. “I’ll tell them you have somewhere else to be as per President Kim’s request and see if I can get all the parts that require you started soon. This better be life or death with the way you’re acting.”

“Thanks,” Sehun says, excusing himself back to his dressing room.

“Where did he get his Gene,” Yixing asks, leaning in to inconspicuously whisper in Luhan’s ear. “If all Perfects looked like that. We’d be a polygamous race of people.”

“That’s genetics at its finest,” Luhan tells him. “Hereditary worked well in that kid’s favor.”

“Luhan, that was a man not a kid,” Yixing says, “and he’s your type Lu, tall, broad shoulders, and an unforgiving face.”

“He doesn’t look like that all the time,” Luhan retorts, “and I’ve seen him grow into that. He’s a child to me.”

“And you’re enthralled by the new cute secretary at your company,” Yixing adds helpfully.

“And that,” Luhan adds dismissively. He’s looking for someone of importance to fix Sehun’s schedule and Yixing is trailing behind him like a lost puppy, refusing to stand too far away.

“Why do you distance this side of your life from us,” Yixing asks. Everything’s settled and the photo shoot has just begun. Up until the photographer started taking pictures, Yixing was coyly flirting with the female models.

“I guess I never saw it as important,” Luhan says, shrugging his shoulders a little as he eyes the shoot.

“You don’t see this as important,” Yixing asks, there’s a crease in his brow in obvious disbelief and his lips are parted as he scoffs. “You’re a celebrity Lu, there are billboards with your face on it. You’re seen on every television throughout the country. The whole production team listened to your words without any complaint. You have all this power, and you must not see it as important because you’ve been doing this since you were a teenager. But Lu you’re not just some nobody.”

Luhan leans against one of the many pillars in the room as Yixing gives his microscopic lecture. He’s not bothered, Yixing’s known for going on those tiny speeches when he felt particularly strong about something. “I just…I don’t think this side of me is the true me, so I don’t feel it necessary to show you it.”

“So kids like Sehun and Kai,” Yixing asks. “You care about them but…”

“But I’m not introducing them to you because I don’t need you corrupting them,” Luhan retorts, grinning just a bit.

****

Yixing leaves with Sehun; they share a taxi cab to go back into the main part of the city. With them gone, Luhan focuses his attention back on the photo shoot.  Kai is done about an half an hour later and after respectfully greeting and thanking the staff for taking care of the two young models he heads to the boy’s dressing room.

“Sehun went to see his boyfriend,” Kai tells him the moment Luhan closes the dressing room door. He’s changing into his normal clothes hair ruffled, and built up makeup clinging to his skin.

“I’d rather not know,” Luhan says with a grimace. “Let me pretend he’s off saving the world or something. I don’t need my accountability questioned.”

Kai nods his head and goes back to changing. Luhan’s playing a mindless cellphone game as he waits. He doesn’t have Minseok’s contact information and it feels like something he should have gotten upon their first meeting. With a world so wired into all types of technology and gadgets, it made absolutely no sense for Luhan not to have such basic information about Minseok.

“Hyung,” Kai calls out quietly. Luhan looks up from his cellphone and towards the younger boy. He’s sitting on the chair in front of the huge vanity table cleared off of all the makeup and hair products the stylists brought in earlier. Kai is staring down at his hands like a guilty child, and Luhan doesn’t know rather to narrow his eyes or comfort the boy.

“What’s wrong,” he finds himself asking as he gazes at the younger male.

“What do you think about the Imperfects,” Kai asks. “Not the rebels, just the people that were born Imperfect.”

“I think they’re pathetic,” Luhan says almost sneering. “Why?”

“Don’t you think they deserve our sympathy,” Kai asks softly. He seems to shrink more and more into himself as he divulges deeper onto the topic of the Imperfect citizens. “I mean many of them had no choice but to be Imperfect because their parents didn’t want to be anything but.”

“They’ve had their chances,” Luhan says. “You might not know this but before the genocide, Imperfects were after Perfects and killed many of us. That’s why they say subways aren’t safe.”

“So you dislike even the ones that are our age,” Kai asks, “the ones that had nothing to do with anything?”

“I don’t dislike them,” Luhan states. “You need to care about them to dislike them, and I don’t care about them. Why are you asking so much about Imperfects? You don’t normally care about political things.”

“Just, if a Perfect was to get involved with an Imperfect what would you think about that,” Kai asks next. He drums his fingers softly against the table and looks at Luhan head on as if he has nothing to hide. The change in behavior strikes Luhan as weird and the older male figures that he actually does have something to hide.

“Even if it’s something as simple as , you shouldn’t do it,” Luhan says. “Don’t go to a brothel, don’t hire them as maids or whatever, just don’t do it.”

“I wasn’t asking for myself,” Kai tells him. “I don’t really care much about them either. I just wanted to know what you think of a Perfect that gets involved with an Imperfect.”

“If they know what they’re doing than I don’t really care,” Luhan says. “It’s just that if you see them as more than what they really are, than you can be seen as a sympathizer to the rebellion, and that’ll get you dead.”

“So if an Imperfect and Perfect were to fall in love,” Kai starts only to have Luhan interrupt him.

“That’s taboo,” Luhan says. “We shouldn’t even be talking about that here, the walls have ears and we’ve been talking about dangerous topics for a while now.”

“It’s fine,” Kai states standing. “You told me all I needed to know. I don’t have any more questions.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what brought this up,” Luhan asks, standing up as well. He heads to the door with Kai trailing closely behind him.

“Just one of my friends from school spends a lot of his free time in the Red Light District,” Kai states. “I’m worried.”

“You have a right to be,” Luhan says. “Try talking to him I guess.”

Luhan drives Kai to Kyungsoo’s house upon the younger’s request and afterwards he heads home.

****

Luhan lets a tired yawn slip pass his lips as he heads towards Kim Minseok’s desk. At the first sound of his steps Minseok had peered up at him and watched him with a toothy grin that made Luhan smile in return.

“Should I tell President Kim, you’re here,” Minseok asks when Luhan stops right in front of his desk.

“Please don’t,” Luhan tells him, frowning just a bit. “I’m here for you. Your lunch break is approaching right?”

“Three minutes from now,” Minseok says, eyes quickly flickering to the clock. He presses the intercom button and excuses himself to lunch. “Where are we going today?”

“You don’t want to eat at the cafeteria,” Luhan asks, watching as Minseok grabs his coat off the rack beside his desk.

“I figured we should take turns if this is going to be a constant thing,” Minseok states, walking around his desk, and moving so that he’s standing directly in front of Luhan, leaning slightly against his desk. “Where do you want to go?”

“There’s a store,” Luhan says, remembering slowly. “Not too far from here, it’s kind of a convenience store, they sell a lot of cheap food.”

“There’s a convenience store in District One,” Minseok asks, in surprise. “More importantly, you’ve been to it?”

“I go to places like that,” Luhan says, following Minseok out of the door. “I went a lot when I was younger.”

"I need your contact information," Luhan tells Minseok as they travel down the elevator together.

"Why do you need my contact information," Minseok asks his eyes are on the transparent glass of the elevator. The man's hands are stuffed in his tight-fitted slacks and his eyes flicker from person to person as they descend down floor after floor.

"Because I don't have it," Luhan replies feeling more than a bit stupid when Minseok laughs out right at him. The elevator stops on the main floor, and the doors open as a courteous automated voice tells them to have a nice day. In front of them stands a group of company employees and Minseok bows swiftly in greeting while Luhan nods his head in lazy acknowledgment.

"I knew you seemed like the type to not bow in respect," Minseok says once it's just the two of them. He's falters in step to allow Luhan to lead them. The slight change in distance between them has Luhan feeling annoyed. When Minseok was leading Luhan was able to have a nice view of him, now with Minseok a full step behind him he feels like he's talking to thin air as he stares ahead.

"What's that supposed to mean," Luhan asks. He sounds more affronted than he feels, but Minseok still chuckles lightly behind him.

"Nothing," Minseok says dismissively, "go back to stating the obvious." Luhan turns then, walking backwards and forcing the few people on the street to move around him. He pushes his lips in an overly exaggerated pout and knits his eyebrows together pathetically.

"You're not being very nice," he says watching Minseok's reaction. The older male's eyes shoot to his hairline before he smirks in a way that reminds Luhan of Kai when he's told to look y in front of a camera. The lift of Minseok's lips into a toothsome grin is so confident and mischievous, Luhan finds it effortless and extremely y to the point where Luhan finds his thoughts running away with the rest of his mind.

"When did I ever say I was nice," Minseok asks.

Luhan lips part, barely breathing out the first syllable of his response when in a matter of milliseconds the playful confidence of Minseok’s melts away into sheer panic and horror.

Luhan feels Minseok's hand wrap around his wrist and he almost trips into the older boy as Minseok pulls him close. They stand at the edge of the sidewalk, mere centimeters apart and Luhan watches Minseok as Minseok looks towards him his bottom lip in between his teeth and his eyebrows knitted so tightly together wrinkles form. The grip on Luhan's wrist is slightly painful and despite the height difference Luhan feels small as he stares into Minseok's clouded with worry eyes.

"You're so stupid," Minseok says letting his wrist go. A resigned sigh slips pass his lips as if he's giving up, but the mischievousness in his eyes starts to return.

"So," Luhan begins a foolish grin gracing his lips as the beeping of the crosswalk behind him suddenly plays loudly in their ears. "Can I have your number?"

From here on out the story definitely starts to pick up